In an email, Olson-Rosenbush added the following information, including good new about the state of river stewardship:

Spooner FFA has been making a trip or two down the Namekagon to clean up any trash they can safely get their hands on since the 1980s when Mr. Robert Kinderman was the Agriculture teacher here and I was a student in high school! I continued the tradition when I replaced Mr. Kinderman back in 1990. The tradition continues because both of us feel/felt that it was an important resource that deserved our attention.

In 2000 I left teaching and I am not sure if the person who replaced me continued the tradition each year but, I know that they did complete the clean-up at least a few times. I returned here in 2006 and every year we have done our best to float the river from Earl to Jack’s Canoe Rental in the fall and again in the spring, if weather conditions and the calendar cooperated!

Years ago, we would actually take the big black garbage bags in each canoe, this fall we each carried a tall kitchen garbage bag…we only filled one with six canoes collecting all the way! In my time, I believe that there has been a major reduction in garbage being left behind or maybe there are more groups that are actually doing clean-ups.